Saturday, September 5, 2015

Do you have a nickname or what do your
friends call you?No, I wasn’t cool enough to have a nickname in my real life. However, I
used to be in a band called From a Second Story Window, and my nickname in that
band was “tuna,” because I flopped around so much onstage when I played my
guitar!

Birthplace:Lovely old Sharon, PA, which is about an hour north of Pittsburgh. So I
just tell people Pittsburgh because I suppose that’s cooler? Or something like
that.

Current hometown:Los Angeles.

Favorite city and why?My favorite city? That would be Tokyo. I lived there on and off for about
five years, and it’s so culturally different from any city in America. For
example, you can walk down a street in Tokyo and visit a café where you pay a
few bucks for a tea, then you can sit and play with owls that fly around in the
café while you try not to get pecked by them. Or you can go to a maid café and
have beautiful Japanese girls dressed in maid costumes treat you like a king. I
mean, what’s not to love?I’ll need the address for that owl café
if I ever make it to Tokyo.Haha, sure. Here’s a link to what I’m talking about, in case you want to
visually see it as well:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2630470/The-Tokyo-owl-cafes-diners-make-feathered-friends.html

Birthday / Age:Just had my birthday yesterday, actually. I’m 25 in my heart, we’ll just
say, but maybe a few years older than that is somewhere close to my real age,
sadly enough.

How would you describe yourself
physically?Blond hair, blue eyes, and about 80 hours of tattoos all over me. That’s
the official description I would put on Match.Com if I ever decided to use a
dating website, such as Match.com.

How would someone else describe you
physically?A kind of short dude who thinks he’s really tall, but his tattoos seem nice?
I guess? I have never really had feedback from others about my looks, which I
dunno if I should be worried about that because the people I am friends with
don’t really want to tell me what they think of me, physically speaking? Now
I’m getting kind of paranoid thinking about this…

The first thing people notice about you
is…I think two things. Physically speaking, I think when somebody first meets
me, they probably think I’m a huge cunt because I always look like I’m pissed
off at the world. But when you start talking to me, I think that’s when they
realize I’m very polite and hopefully they consider me unassuming as well. I
think the other thing people notice about me but may not even realize it is
that I ask a ton of questions. I am an extremely curious person.
Religion, if any?Not particularly religious, though when I was in high school, I really
thought I was going to hell, so I spent four years reading only The Bible and
basically descending in Christian fundamentalism hell. I never even watched a
movie in four years, which was really disorienting because I didn’t know who
Forrest Gump was, or why so many people wanted to know what was in the
briefcase, or what was in the box either, for that matter. However, now I’d
like to think I’m okay with what I believe about God. I know there is a God,
and I know I’m not that God, and I’m okay with that for the time being. Are you superstitious? Any phobias?Definitely not superstitious, but I do have a raging phobia of
somebody breaking into my apartment. Maybe not so much a phobia as this deep
anxiety about it. Not sure why, as I live in a nice neighborhood here in LA,
but it’s so bad that I have seriously booby-trapped every window and door in my
apartment, and have camera monitors too. It’s a little too much, probably.

Do you smoke/drink? If so, what? Any bad habits?Never smoked a cigarette in my entire life. Not even once. Drinking is a
whole other story. I had a time in my life when I had more alcohol in my
bloodstream than blood. That was when I was in a band though, as it came with
the lifestyle I suppose of being around four other dudes who did nothing but
drink. Not that I minded at all. Drinking is awesome!
Bad habits… way too many to even begin discussing, but I would say that one of
the biggest habits of mine that I definitely shouldn’t have is procrastinating.
I think on any given day, I make a list of what I have to do that day, and the
list is so overwhelming when I look at it that I do everything I can to avoid
doing anything on that list. I end up getting into these rather unproductive
phases. It fucking sucks when that happens to me.
Oh, and I suppose I’m a night owl, which may or may not be a bad habit,
depending on how much I have to do the next day on one of those epic daily
lists.

Current occupation / Worst Job / Dream
job:I actually do about ten things for money these days. Things like selling
shit on ebay/amazon, being a shipping distributor for some German company
selling their natural products, and doing SEO for companies and also developing
websites. Writing is now something I would consider a job, but not in a
negative sense that you would associate the word “job” with. I love it. My
dream job is to be a writer and get paid doing it, or actually going back to
playing music again for people to enjoy. The only problem with doing music is
that I have to depend on other people to play music, being that I can’t sing,
and this is where things get all screwed up usually. My worst job would be any
fast food place because I can’t cook, can’t figure out food at all, can’t even
microwave anything properly. I once burned spaghettios trying to heat them up!
Seriously, not joking about it, when I took them out of the microwave, they
were burned so bad they looked like one big giant plate of red goo! I guess I
shouldn’t have put them in there for 45 minutes though.

What do you like to do when you’re not
at work?I work at home, so this is kind of a fun question to consider, because I’m
always at home, even when I’m not at work. But I think the main thing for me
that I love to do when I’m not working is watching a movie in a nice theater,
or maybe going to a concert. I particularly am obsessed with Japanese JPOP
idols and other JPOP artists, so I am always on the lookout for these type of
artists to go check out. It’s always a good time.

What is your zombie outbreak survival
plan?Go find Rick and ask if I can join his group there in Alexandria. Actually,
I would probably try to find the cast and crew of The Walking Dead because they
have killed so many fucking zombies in all the seasons of that show that, even
though it’s fake murder, they probably actually WOULD have no fear of dropping
zombies left and right. They probably would be the most experienced people in
the world right now to lead the charge against the undead. So yeah, I would
join up with them, for sure.

Weapon of choice:I can’t shoot a gun for shit, so probably my special edition Kill Bill
Hattori Hanzo Katana. I keep it pretty sharp and sometimes swing it around and
I think I could decapitate somebody with it, especially anyone that tries to
break into my home.

Do you have any special skills?Hmmm…. Maybe my sense of empathy, when I choose to employ it with people.
Back when I was going through that terrible religious phase, I thought I wanted
to be a priest, so I took what is called the “priest test,” which is what every
Catholic priest has to take before they enter seminary. I was grounded in
Christian fundamentalism, but still went to my normal church, which was
Catholic. So anyway, what happens is you are put into a room, and then a priest
asks a bunch of moral questions and general things about religion and tapes
your answers. Then a panel of priests listen to your responses and evaluate you
on everything you’ve said for different categories of what they think makes a
good priest. Things like spirituality, wisdom, and empathy. Well, I scored the
highest anyone at that particular seminary has ever scored in the empathy
department, so I guess that might be my special skill. I tend to get into
people’s heads a lot.

Did you go to college and, if so, what
for?Went to Penn State and got my Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development, which
is like Psychology lite. I guess that helped me develop my getting into head
skill.

Any pets? If so, what are
they and what are their names?Yes, I have a pet cat named Gachapin. She’s five years old and a black and
white short hair cat. She hates the fucking world and everyone in it. I am not
even safe from her… so many times when I get out of the shower, she waits in
the hallway just outside the bathroom door and slashes at my feet… for no
apparent fucking reason. I love her randomness though, but yeah, if you are a
stranger and you enter my house, she will fucking try to eviscerate you. It’s
hilarious.

What is your favorite animal?My cat Gachapin. If I don’t count her, then it would have to be jellyfish
inside an aquarium with lights at the bottom of the aquarium illuminating their
translucent bodies. And kimodo dragons.

Speaking of pets, any pet peeves?Too many to list. I can be rather cranky when I’m tired, so that is when
the pet peeves come out in me. My biggest is people who can’t drive, as I hate
it when I’m on the road and have to deal with morons who seem like they just
got their license that day. That and I hate having to wait for service anywhere.
I am the worst with that sort of stuff.

What is your favorite quotation / motto /
saying?“We accept the love we think we deserve.” It’s from the Perks of Being a
Wall Flower. I think that’s probably one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard
anyone say, because it’s so, so true it hurts to even think about how true it
is.

What is the best thing that ever
happened to you?Ah, I gotta go the parent route here and say the birth of my daughter, Miyuki,
that happened last year. When you end up being completely responsible for
another human being’s life, your whole paradigm about what is important in the
world, i.e., yourself, disappears, and you start to really think about how
fucked up the world is, and then you become super protective in your thoughts
and way of thinking. Miyuki probably has kept me out of jail from wanting to
beat so many asses at 7/11 when I’m standing at the counter and the dick stain
that is working there decides it’s okay to continue stocking shelves while he
sees me waiting to pay for my nachos and slushy. I don’t want to spend my
daughter’s formative years in jail.
What is the worst thing that ever happened to you?When I quit my band in 2006. I really wasn’t in a right state of mind when
that decision was made, and I have regretted it every single day since. I
wasn’t getting along with the guys in my band, and the sad part is that I
believe that all could’ve been fixed, but I just had it in my head that they
hated me and didn’t care about me. I was so stupid and selfish back then. Maybe
I still am, I dunno, but if I could rewind time, I would have definitely not
made that choice twice.

Ever had your heart broken? Is there a
story worth telling behind your answer?Many, many times. So many movies break my heart with how much anticipation
I had for them to be incredible and they turned out to be dogshit. The Star
Wars prequels come to mind. I’ve never really had my heart broken by anyone,
but I think when you’re young and you break up with somebody, it SEEMS like
your heart gets broke, you know? But the thing is, I’ve never been truly
destroyed by another person, and I’m grateful for that.
Ever broken someone’s heart? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?I think I’ve hurt a few girls in my lifetime, though I feel bad about that
stuff now. But not worth talking about, as all these girls I hurt I’m actually
good friends with now, so maybe it’s best to leave sleeping dogs lie?
What is the best thing you’ve ever done?So far, I would say it’s a tie between writing the first two albums for my
band, and writing KAI, my first novel. I put so much time and energy into both,
and I feel that everything I am, creatively speaking, went into these projects.
I am proud of both achievements.

What is the worst thing you’ve ever
done?I think maybe not paying attention to my health. Back in 2009, I ate a bag
of nachos and a jar of salsa and drank a 2 liter of Coke, not kidding, every
single day, for like three months straight. And then I ended up in the hospital
because my appendix nearly burst and my diverticulum got shredded. Definitely
the worst thing ever that could’ve been avoided.

What do you do?Right now? I’m enjoying the marketing promotion for KAI. It’s been intense
how much goes into this whole idea of getting people to pay attention to
something you’ve devoted five years of your life to writing and obsessing over.
But I am enjoying it because of how curious I am to see if people will
absolutely ignore my creation or embrace it.

How did you get started doing what you
do?Sort of explained that one already, I suppose, but I created a rather
large… you guessed it…. LIST of all the things that I want to do for promoting
KAI. Things like reaching out to my favorite bloggers, new bloggers who I hope
will consider my book a favorite of theirs, and working on the SEO for my
website to get it on page one of Google for my book’s top keywords. Things like
this are exciting to me.

What is your advice to other people that
want to get started doing what you do?Troll Google for at least ten hours a day. That might be the best place to
start, given that there is such great, free advice out there to learn how to
market and promote a book. I think I must have spent two months just doing research
so I could try to have the best shot possible at getting somebody other than a
family member or friend to buy my book. Actually, family and friends haven’t
even bought my book yet because they expect me to just give them a book for
free, so I’m hoping my research hours translates into sold copies of my book,
or else I’m going to go broke really fast doing all this marketing for KAI.Yeah, that’s the worst part about being
an author and the best part about shopping the promotion out to a third party.
It’s ironic how your friends and family, the people that you would expect to be
the most supportive of your writing usually aren’t.I mean, my brothers and sisters seem to care about the book, but like one
of my closest friends who I gave the book to hasn’t even sent me a text or
anything saying he’s enjoying it. Maybe he isn’t enjoying it and that’s why?
But even so, if it was him who had put out the novel, I would buy a copy, text
him about it, call him up and talk it through with him. I mean, this is a big
thing in a person’s life to publish a book, right? I spent five years
meticulously writing and researching the book. I went to Hiroshima and lived
there for a period of time JUST to make sure I could properly showcase both the
city of Hiroshima and my main character who is from there. I have put so much
effort into this, and yeah, it would be nice if the people who have heard me
talk about it incessantly for half a decade could at least let me know they
like what I’ve written. Or even better, buy the book to support the next stage
in the book’s life, which is to get it turned into an adapted screenplay, you
know? So happy you understand this!

What projects are you working on now?As mentioned, KAI is my main priority right now. However, I also
started my next novel, which is a two book epic about cryptids and the end of
the world as told through the Pan Gu myth, but with a twist. I also have
another story I’m developing about a Japanese girl who is very lonely and
obsessed with Ikemen porn and the ebola virus. And another story about a JPOP
idol group who has an extremely fucked up side to them. All good stuff I can’t
wait to write!Those ideas all sound interesting.Keep me posted.I will for sure.

What are you watching?Well, like everyone else in the world, I just got done watching the
latest Game of Thrones season. I was pretty disappointed with the finale of
this last season. Jon Snow is dead? Really? I also finished watching True
Detective’s second season, which was a clusterfuck of stupid dialogue and
convoluted plot lines. I did love the season finale of that one though. I also
just saw Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, which was a fantastic little indie
starring Rinko Kikuchi.

What are you listening to?Music is my lifeblood, so right now, it’s Perfume (A Japanese trio of girls
from Hiroshima that plays EDM), AKB48, Namie Amuro, and Mono, plus this great
band from New York called So Hideous.

What are you reading?I am nearly done with Hiromi Kawakami’s STRANGE WEATHER IN TOKYO. I have a
stack of books waiting to be read by me. I try to read at least two to three
books a month, if not more. I’m a voracious reader for sure.

Favorite author / book?Haruki Murakami is my all-time favorite author. His book, 1Q84, is my
favorite book. I’ve never been more moved in my entire life by a book like I
was this story. It’s incredible, all consuming, big as a Bible, and totally
insane.

Favorite band / song?I have two that always come in first on my list of favorite bands and
songs. The first is that girl group, Perfume, I mentioned. Their song, EDGE, is
my favorite song by them. The second group is Glassjaw, and their song PIANO
always moves me to tears every time I hear it.Oh, man!I was just talking about Glassjaw the other
day!Hopefully it was good what you were talking about? I’ve seen them something
like five or six times, been onstage with them a few times singing with Daryl,
even talked with Manny, their original bass player, when I was recording my
band’s second album, so that we could get a similar bass tone that he has. I’ve
loved them for so many years and always have a great time at their shows. It
would’ve been a great dream for me to play a show with them.

Least favorite band / song?Pretty much anything on the radio these days. I fucking hate so much
of what people consider to be “music” in the mainstream. Anything country
really needs to disappear entirely from the universe of music. I dunno the name
of the song, unfortunately, but there was also this rap song, if you can even
call it a rap song (I don’t want to discredit rap as a genre by even calling
this song a rap song. I actually happen to enjoy some rap a lot), and it was
some girl barely saying anything except the same thing over and over again.
There was a sparse beat to it, and the music video for it was this girl and her
friends robbing somebody and then going to a party with all these people waving
guns around and wearing masks. Do you know what I’m talking about? I saw it one
night really late on MTV and almost threw up in my mouth. It was the worst
thing I’ve probably ever both heard and seen. And we wonder why people in
America think it’s cool to commit crimes and rob people.

Who would you want to meet that you
haven’t met? You get three choices:
Alive. Dead. Fictional.ALIVE:Tani Marika from SKE48. She’s
mentally unbalanced and totally hysterical. I would love to hang out with her
for a whole day. I probably would laugh more than I have in twenty years.
DEAD: James Gandolfini. But only if he was in character as Tony Soprano. The
Sopranos is my all-time favorite TV show, so it would be really fun to see Tony
in real life, as played by the late James Gandolfini.
FICTIONAL: Larry David. I think it would be amazing to get into a fight with
him about anything he likes to fight about, such as how he hates when people
don’t park entirely in a parking spot but are partly in another parking spot.
He’s seriously me in about thirty years.

Are there any questions that I didn’t
ask that you wished I had asked that you would like to answer now?These questions were honestly awesome! I rarely get to talk about myself.
I’m like one of those people stuck up in an old folks home that nobody visits.
So when I get a chance to unleash about myself, clearly, as you can see from my
answers, I like to let it all out. So thank you so much for giving me that
chance!

Got any questions for me?All kinds, but maybe we can just chat on the phone? I’ve liked your blog
for awhile now and wonder how you manage to do all the reviews that you have?
That’s always on my mind when I read your blog. You are pretty intense with
your reviews too. I love it.Hey, I’m always down to chat on the
phone.I usually prefer it to having to
go back and forth via text or e-mail.I
always feel like a teenaged girl when I’m tapping out texts.
As for how I manage to do the volume of work I do, whenever I do anything it’s
usually with a mind towards how I can turn it into content.Sometimes I let myself do things that aren’t
productive, but usually even my procrastinating has a purpose.
I downloaded a bunch of comic books to read and I converted them from CBR to
JPEGs so I could manipulate the image files if I wanted to.I was taking out the ads, and found that I
was kind of nostalgic for the ads and I figure I wasn’t the only person that
was nostalgic for those old ads and started putting together a blog to talk
about them.
The book and film reviews are actually from a huge backlog of reviews that I’ve
accumulated over the years.I used to
review books for a miscellany of magazines and websites and I kept my copy for
all of my reviews.If I actually
reviewed everything I watched or read or listened to, I’d probably have three
times as much content, but I have a standing policy that if I can’t say anything
nice I don’t do a review.I’d rather
promote the things I like, than insult the things that I do not like.
Now that everyone everywhere is a “reviewer” the authority of being a reviewer
is much less powerful, so I mostly do them for my own amusement and my small
audience.You know, I really respect your position about not reviewing something if
you don’t like it. That’s a great way to keep the karmic wheel turning in your
favor, so to speak. Also, I had always wondered what your process was for what
you put on your site. Thanks for explaining that to me. And I agree, everyone
seems to think if they whip up a blog and call themselves a reviewer, that
makes them the authority on whatever it is they choose to review. But often I
find that most people who approach reviews like that tend to be more about just
getting free books to read than they are about helping the authors who are
really putting forth the effort into making something creative. The authority
mentality, I think, comes from the fact that when these reviewers get
overloaded with all the authors out there desperate for a review, it makes that
reviewer feel probably powerful or something to that effect. But the reality is
that authors are really just people who want very much to see feedback from
somebody who takes the time to read their book. Because, you know, authors
don’t get any love from their friends and family!It’s a bit like that.But with the recent advances in
self-publishing the market is flooded with authors competing for a limited
number of readers.I usually get at
least one review request a day at least via e-mail and it would be impossible
to keep up with the review requests unless I made it my full-time job and I
haven’t figured out a way to get paid to review books yet.

Thanks for letting me subject you to being
interviewed!The thanks is all on this side of the table, guaranteed. Thank you so
much.

About the Interviewee:Derek Vasconi is an author who likes to write about horrific things. He’s
obsessed with Japanese culture, considers himself to be an otaku of the highest
order, and also when he’s not writing, he’s either playing music or obsessing
over his favorite music. He graduated from Penn State with a degree in Human
Development and after doing counseling work for six years, decided that was
something he never wanted to do ever again. He wanted to always be a writer,
but started out by helping others write first, creating Sakura Publishing, and
releasing over 30 very successful books for authors all over the world. This
proved to be a great way to learn the publishing business and prepare himself
for writing KAI, his first novel. This is a Japanese horror story that centers
around a young girl from Hiroshima and her desire to destroy the world.

Friday, August 21, 2015

Do you
have a nickname or what do your friends call you?tambo. Yes, with a lowercase
't'. ;)catt dahman was another “No, really,
lowercase.” interviewee.Maybe you two
should be imaginary friends?Maybe we already are, and we hang out with k.d. lang at her ranch on
weekends. You never know. ;)I tried to Google pictures of her ranch
but nothing came up.I bet she has a
really nice ranch though.Yeah, I imagine so.Open, stunning,
and minimalist.

Birthplace:Des Moines, Iowa

Current
hometown:I'd rather not say - had enough
stalkers, thanks anyway. Let's just admit to Northwest Iowa.That’s vague enough to give them
pause.Iowa’s a pretty big state.Outside of a few smallish cities, it’s very
rural with miles and miles of nothing but corn or soybean fields, as far as the
eye can see, with maybe a grain tower to mark the location of a teeny town like
ours.As far as I know, I'm the only
tambo in all of Iowa.At least my
real-life name is very common.There are
plenty of Joneses and I blend in
well.

Favorite
city and why?To be honest here, I don't
really like cities.I'm a rural and
small town gal at heart, and the crowds, noise, pollution, chaos, and close-in
(not to mention tall) buildings are alien to me.I never really relax in a city.That said, I did *mostly* enjoy Boston when I
visited it a few years ago, because it was both very pedestrian accessible and
the wharf and coastal tour rocked.Being
from Iowa, we don't have wharfs, or oceans. ;)Sometimes I forget that most of the
country isn’t coastal.I’ve lived by the
ocean all of my life, so I take it for granted that if you drive long enough
the land ends in water.Coastal living is fascinating and alien to me.I might enjoy living on an island off the New
England, or Pacific Northwest coast somewhere, unless it stinks of fish guts
and such.Do small coastal communities
smell like bait?Innsmouth is reputed to have a distinctly
fishy miasma about it.But for the most
part the coast just smells like sea air.Salt water and sand.Unless you
go to where the fishing boats dock.Then
it’s pretty fishy.Saltwater and sand sounds lovely. Here, it smells like manure and growing,
green things. Not always the best scents, but it's home.I know that smell.At least the manure and fertilizer part.I’ve driven across Pennsylvania in the summer
time and I had to tie a cologne-sprayed rag across my face if I wanted to drive
with the windows down.My husband's uncle was a hog farmer and whenever we smell manure, we say,
"smells like money."

Age:I'll be 51 in June.

How
would you describe yourself physically?Tall, sturdy, and openly
friendly with pale, ruddy skin, bluish eyes, and red tinged blonde hair. I come
from British rural working class stock and it shows with my complexion and
'peasant' build.

How
would someone else describe you physically?Tall. Everyone always remarks
that I'm tall. Intimidating, maybe?How’s the air up there?It's all right. I can see a long way and reach high stuff. Bonking my head kind of sucks, though.

The
first thing people notice about you is…I laugh a lot, am creatively
boisterous, and tend to talk loudly, mostly due to nervousness around
people.I am soooooo introverted, but I
can put on a hat and pretend I'm not.Also, I apparently have bright, sparkly, expressive eyes. (Since I had
utterly no idea, I took a poll.)

Sexual
orientation?Delightfully married.

Religion,
if any?Non-conformist deist.Believe in God, very solidly
anti-religion.I don't do church except
for occasional weddings and funerals, but I do love to visit them and poke
around.Old churches are usually beautiful
examples of what can happen when zeal and architecture cross paths.YES!They're so gorgeous
structurally, all the little details and workmanship, the light... I love old
churches.Modern ones don't have the
same atmosphere of reverence and awe.They sure don’t.

Are you
superstitious at all? Any phobias?Not particularly superstitious,
but I do have a falling phobia, even minor distances, like sliding off a chair
I'm sitting on.Freaks me the hell
out.People laugh, and it's rather
embarrassing.As an odd note, I actually
*like* spiders.

Do you
smoke/drink? If so, what? Any bad habits?I chew my fingernails - it's a
nervous habit I've had since I was a kid - and I cuss, likely too much.I 'smoke' a pork shoulder every once in a
while (if you consider slathering it with rub and slow roasting it for about 14
hours smoking) and I drink a lot of unsweetened iced tea!As long as you don’t try chewing other
people’s fingernails you can probably get by.My great grandmother used to say the same thing, along with “all's well as
long as you don't answer yourself” when I'd talk to myself.

Do you
have any special skills?I am a competition level quilt
piecer - that's the part where all the little pieces are sewn together in a
pattern - and I especially like making little quilts. I can cook Thanksgiving
dinner for 22 people all by myself and have everything ready at the same time
(hot stuff hot, cold stuff cold). Oh! I can calculate sales tax in my head
faster than most places do with a cash register or calculator.There are quilt competitions?Why yes there are! Some (like the one in Paducah Kentucky, the Houston
show, or the world show) have thousands of dollars in prizes. Most shows are
much smaller, and winners get ribbons and maybe fabric, thread, or notions.
They're mostly for fun and showing off your mad quilting skills.

Did you
go to college and, if so, what for?Yep! Started as a Veterinary
Medicine/Chemistry double major, then Med Lab Tech, then Graphic Design. I have
a BA in graphic design, but a pretty intense science background. I'd be a
professional student if it'd keep the lights on and the fridge full.

If you
went to college, did you manage to pay off your student loans?Finally finished them off last
year, all that debt for a degree I no longer use. I don't know how the current
crop of students will manage.

Any
pets? If so, what are they and what are their names?Four cats (by age) Abbie,
Puufy, MeowMeow and Peanut, plus a neurotic Lab mix named Gozer.I live with four cats too!One of them is named Gozer.I think that he identifies as something else
though because he doesn’t really know how to cat.Should his name have been Vinz Clortho? I seem to recall him not knowing
how to be a keymaster.I changed his name to Church, like the
cat from Pet Sematary.He seems to like
that one better.Church was a cool cat, especially with the missing fur. ;)

What is
your favorite animal?I'd have to go with cats of any
kind.Even stray cats like me.

Speaking
of pets, any pet peeves?Asshats. It's not that tough to
be polite, why be a dick?

What is
the best thing that ever happened to you?Meeting my husband, then our
daughter and granddaughter.

What is
the worst thing that ever happened to you?I'd rather not go into that in
a public forum, but I will say it gave me three stints in therapy.

Ever
had your heart broken? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?I think almost everyone's had their
heart broken. I've lost some pets through the years that still really hurt.

Ever
broken someone’s heart? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?Not that I know of, but I guess
it's possible.

What is
the best thing you’ve ever done?I try to consistently help
people, be generous, kind, etc.My
husband and I have volunteered, donated money we couldn't afford, have offered
up a spare couch or bed for friends, family, and acquaintances, have been
foster parents, taken in rescue animals... We both tend to show up and
help.I can't think of one thing that
would rise up to be 'best'.

What is
the worst thing you’ve ever done?When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade,
I wrote some bad words on the chalkboard behind the projector screen.I'm still not sure why, but I did it.A troublemaking classmate got blamed for it
and me, being me, told the teacher I'd done it, not him.She didn't seem to believe me, but there was
nothing more I could do.Since then, I
try very hard not to do 'bad things'.If
I do screw up, I admit it and try to make things right.What did you write in the chalkboard?Words I currently use far too much.Fuck, shit, damn.I might have
had cunt in there too, I can't remember for sure.

If you
could kill one person, consequence free, who would it be and why?I almost killed a friend of my
dad's once. Threatened to, anyway. So him. He died a few years ago from natural
causes, though, so I'm off the hook for that one.

What do
you do?I slaughter people on paper for
money.People always blink at me when I
say that.

How did
you get started doing what you do?I've been a writer since I was
a small child, but my stories started to take a turn around middle school,
evolving into the dark, quirky, violent, tales I write now.

What is
your advice to other people that want to get started doing what you do?Read a lot, write a lot, and
understand verbs.They're key.

What
are some of the projects you’ve worked on/finished in the past? Give us a
little history if you will.I'll just list the published
titles. My moldering stack of early crap isn't worth discussing, finished or
not.The
Dubric Byerly Mysteries - Ghosts in the Snow - Bantam, 2004Threads of Malice - Bantam, 2005Valley of the Soul - Bantam, 2006FIRE - indi-pubbed short story, 2006Other
Works -Endorphins - indi-pubbed short story,
2007SID - indi-pubbed short story, 2007Morgan's Run (out on submission) -
2011SPORE - Samhain, 2015

What
projects are you working on now?I have a spec thriller titled SLIPPAGE, a 4th Dubric novel titled Stain of Corruption, A GhoulBane graphic
novel, and a SPORE screenplay in the
works.

What
are you watching?I don't watch much TV, and we
don't have cable, Hulu, or Netflix, so right now it's just Big Bang Theory and
Blue Bloods. I watched Alien and Aliens last weekend on DVD. Go Ripley!Those first two Alien movies are so
good!I make it a point to re-watch them
at least a couple times a year just to remind myself what watching a great film
feels like.Us too. Plus The Princess Bride is a repeating treat. I really like Grand
Torino a lot too. Eastwood's really hit his stride as a director.

What
are you listening to?I have an eclectic mix of pop,
blues, and classic rock playing in the background of Zombies, Run!

What
are you reading?Derelict, by L.J. Cohen. It's been on my TBR
pile for too long, but it was the book I randomly grabbed after finishing The Dark Servant by Matt Manochio

Favorite
author / book?The
Stand by Stephen King, the original
1978 version. I try to read it every summer.

Favorite
band / song?It depends on the day. Right
now, I'll go with P!nk's Fuckin' Perfect,
but I have pretty varied music tastes. If I can sing to it, it's likely on my
iPod, except for...

Least
favorite band / song?I don't do country music. Nope,
uh uh, no way. Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt a long time ago.Hank Williams Sr. & Johnny Cash are
all you really need to know about country anyhow.Everything else is just more broken hearts
and spilled drinks.Yeah, and losing your dog and woman on a train with your truck. ;)You know what happens when you play a
country record backwards?Life's great and you get all your stuff back?You heard that one before.

If you
could do anything other than what you do now, what would you do?Sleep. I can really use some
sleep.

Who
would you want to meet that you haven’t met? You get three choices:
Alive. Dead. Fictional.
Alive, I'd like to meet more of my reading and writing friends I only know
online, and of them, wow, only one?? Lisa Cohen. She's awesome. But there are a
lot of great people on the list. I've met many, but there are many more still
to meet!
Dead, Thomas Jefferson. I've always been a fan and it'd be nice to settle the
church/state issue.
Fictional, Sister Husband from Where The
Heart Is by Billie Letts

What’s the
best and worst job you’ve ever had?Besides being a wife, mom,
writer, quilter, and cat wrangler? ;) The best was probably working for the
Iowa Beer and Liquor department, mostly because the pay was excellent and I
worked alone, but the state privatized liquor stores and obliterated my
department, so I was laid off. Boo! Worst... I created artwork for a battery
supplier and it was four years of crap pay, soul crushing corporate drama, and questionable
deplorable business ethics. I have never been so happy to leave a place as I
was when I walked out of there. Despite being unemployed and broke, I laughed
all the way home.

Are
there any questions that I didn’t ask that you wished I had asked that you
would like to answer now?You didn't ask me about my fabric
collection, or what wall I beat my head against before breaking through to
writing sellable prose. ;) The elephant in the room is probably why does a nice
gal like me write such violent books?Why does a nice gal like you write such
violent books?Because of childhood trauma. It seemed to be a good way to vent off the
anger and PTSD. It worked well for a long time. Now that my brain's fixed
(third stint in therapy was the charm!) I keep doing it because, well, fans,
and because I don't know what else to write.

Anyone
you recommend I interview that you can put me in touch with?YES! I'd like to point you
toward authors Aaron Bunce, AR Miller, and LJ Cohen.I’m game if they are.I shall point them in your general direction immediately!

Got any
questions for me?How did you come up with such a
varied set of questions, and how many of these questions have you answered
yourself? Also, how in the hell did you get that honey badger into a barrel?I came up with the First-Pass
Questionnaire through trial and error.Originally it was based on a character survey I created for a
post-apocalyptic zombie epidemic epic-length book project I’m working on.When I decided to start doing interviews, I
added some questions and started with that.I’ve done almost 200 interviews for this blog, so I refined the
questionnaire figuring out which questions worked and which didn’t.My intention is to give interviewees a list
of jumping off points to provide interesting answers to so we can have an
interesting conversation.Sometimes it
works.Sometimes it doesn’t.
How many of the questions have I answered?All of them.Getting the badger into the barrel was
the easy part.Now if only I can figure
out how to get it back out again.Yeah, once they're in they do tend to hunker down for the long haul. Damn
badger squatters! Maybe next time you should use a better lid?

About the Interviewee:Award-winning author of the
Dubric Byerly Mysteries (Bantam Spectra), and the new SF/Horror novel SPORE
(Samhain Publishing), Tamara Jones started her academic career as a science
geek, earned a degree in art, and, when she's not making quilts or herding
cats, writes grisly thrillers as Tamara Jones and Tamara Siler Jones. Despite
the violent nature of her work, Tam's easygoing and friendly. Not sick or
twisted at all. Honest. Visit her online at http://www.tamara-jones.net
Tamara is represented by Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary Agency.